The church of Rinsumageest is a bit of a mystery. It is the only church in this province with a crypt underneath its choir. It must have been an important church, but nobody knows what important person was buried in it.
The church was built in stages. The Romanesque choir was built in ca. 1100. Later in the 12th century it was heightened and a three-aisled basilica was built, of which only the main aisle remains since the side-aisles were demolished in ca. 1525. On the south-side a new side-aisle in Gothic style was built, which was the same width and height as the nave. The western part of the northern wall of the nave features various closed arches, reminding of the former side-aisle. The three higher niches on the eastern part of the same wall are however decorative and always were part of the outside wall, although their precense on the inside as well suggests that they were intended to be open, leading to a space which never was built and not even the foundations were laid. In the middle niche, and partly in the right hand one as well, three smaller windows were opened later to illuminatethe stairs to the crypt underneath the choir. Next to it is a closed window, the function of which is unknown.
In 1805 a second-hand portal was added to the north side, bought from the nearby house Eysingastate, which had just been demolished.
The originally 13th-century tower was in 1610 largely renewed. In 2005 it was restored.